Portrait of Ladislaus IV, King of Poland

When this portrait was painted in 1613, the young man in Polish court dress was not yet a king. He was Prince Wladyslaw Vasa, son of the Polish king, and about 18 years old. Three years earlier, boyars in Moscow had elected him tsar of Russia during the turmoil that followed the collapse of the old dynasty. He never took that throne. In February 1613, the very year of this picture, an assembly in Moscow chose Michael Romanov instead, founding the line that would rule Russia for three centuries. Wladyslaw kept the Russian title on paper for years and only surrendered the claim in the 1630s. He became king of Poland in 1632. The portrait later entered the Medici collection, which is why a Polish prince in Polish dress hangs today among the Italian rooms of the Uffizi.